Paris MoU concerned about poor boat drills

Between the 1st of September and the 30th of November 2009 a Concentrated Inspection Campaign (CIC) on lifeboat launching arrangements was conducted jointly with the Tokyo MoU.

The 27 member authorities of the Paris MoU carried out 5,749 inspections. During each inspection vital points of SOLAS Chapter III, ISM and the LSA Code requirements were verified.

Preliminary results from the Paris MoU inspections show that one out of every five inspections revealed CIC-related deficiencies. During the 3 month period 246 ships have been detained.

30% of these detentions were CIC related. This means that in 80 cases the lifeboat launching appliances had deficiencies which were serious enough to detain the ship. During the campaign 2,136 CIC-related deficiencies were found. The campaign revealed that one out of every eight drills, when conducted, was not performed satisfactorily. This is an issue of serious concern to the Paris MoU Member States, and is often caused by lack of training.

Of the procedures or instructions and identification of hazards associated with launching and recovery of lifeboats one out of 6 was found unsatisfactory. These are related to the safety management system on board the ship.

All other items inspected showed good overall compliance. Full details of the CIC questionnaire are published on the Paris MoU website at: www.parismou.org

A total of 32 flags had 1 or more CIC related detention. These flags cover 76% of the inspections. The flags, which were subject to 10 or more inspections, with the highest CIC related detention record were:

• Switzerland with 12 inspections and 2 detentions (17%)
• Sierra Leone with 47 inspections and 5 detentions (11%)
• Togo with 10 inspections and 1 detention (10%)
• Cambodia with 62 inspections and 6 detentions (10%)

A total of 67 flags, which cover 24% of the inspections, had no CIC related detentions at all. Most CIC inspections took place on general dry cargo ships (38%), followed by Ro-Ro container ships (15%) and bulk carriers (13%). Bulk carriers have the highest detention rate of (3%), followed by the general dry cargo ships ( 2%) and refrigerated cargo ships (1.2%).

The Port State Control Committee will consider final analysis of the results of the campaign at its meeting in May 2010 and more detailed results will be presented to the International Maritime Organization.